WEST NORRITON — What do homemade lasagna, early Quaker women and Norristown police have in common?

These seemingly mismatched elements all conspired to make a visitor from Gloucestershire, England, feel uncommonly welcome during her three-week stay in Norristown.

When the International Police Association learned of PhD student Naomi Wood’s interest in coming to Pennsylvania to do some research for a thesis on Quaker women, the 62-year-old organization shifted its hospitality game plan into high gear, as it always does for a member of its law enforcement family.

Naomi Wood’s father, Sgt. Tim Wood, had retired not long ago from the Gloucestershire Police Department.

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“When we have requests from around the world and have visitors coming in we try to accommodate them in every way that we possibly can,” said Oscar Vance, IPA Region 13 Pennsylvania president, who retired last January after nearly 50 years as chief county detective with the Montgomery County District Attorney’s office.

“To recognize the region where Naomi’s father came from and the fact that she is his daughter, we honor that because we’re a social organization whereby we assist those members from around the world. Naomi was going to be studying here for three weeks so she needed someone to host her, and we try to arrange it so people can stay at homes in different countries rather than hotels. As an IPA family member, we wanted her to learn all about the American lifestyle and have an enjoyable time while she’s here.”

It came as no surprise to Vance when his longtime buddy and colleague, magnanimous Norristown Ambassador and former Norristown police officer Hank Cisco stepped up to offer his home – or rather, his daughter Mary’s home – to Naomi.

“Hank also happens to be a member of IPA Region 13 and he told me about his daughter Mary, who would be happy to host Naomi,” Vance recalled.

So Mary Cisco gathered up equal parts cordiality and courage and invited the English stranger to be a guest in her Powell Street home.

“I didn’t know who this person was, so I agreed to one week,” Mary said.

However, it only took a couple of days and a few late night tea times for the pair to bond.

“After she arrived on Sunday, by Tuesday I told my dad I’d be happy to have her for the rest of the time because she was so sweet,” Mary said.

As she was being welcomed into the Italian-American household, the young Brit admitted she may have seemed a bit overwhelmed by the voluminous feasts presented at every meal.

“I’ve never seen food at this volume … the hospitality was just amazing,” said Naomi, who was indulging in one last bite of hospitality with her newfound friends at a farewell dinner held at Greco Roman restaurant in Jeffersonville.

“When I got off the plane they asked me what kind of food I liked and I said ‘lasagna’ and they said ‘you’ve come to the right place,’ ” Naomi said, smiling.

Hank Cisco noted that it was indeed his job to make the police sergeant’s daughter feel welcome in the U.S.

“When she arrived at the house we had ravioli, and all Italian food, plus wine,” he said. “As Norristown’s Ambassador and IPA member I’m happy that I can entertain. I enjoy the diversity. Just think if she would have come to my house and said she didn’t like Italian food. She wouldn’t have been staying for three weeks, I can tell you that,” he added, laughing.

In between the bountiful Italian repasts, Naomi’s days were filled with trips to a couple of Valley Forge benchmarks – the National Historical Park and the casino – and, of course, her research on the habits of early Quaker women, which led her to Haverford College, Swarthmore College and the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

She said she gathered a good bit of information to round out a required 80,000-word thesis for her class at the University of Warwick back home.

“A lot of things I knew before I came here but I needed to get the evidence,” Naomi said. “I am really interested in how Quaker women are able to balance rearing large families with their missionary work. I found some interesting pieces of correspondence from the 1680s, where the wife has gone off traveling and written letters that came back to her husband who’s been left to look after the children and she’s saying how much she misses the family but feels obliged to keep following her spiritual calling. This is incredibly radical for its time and that’s why I’m interested in Quaker women because they just didn’t conform to conventional ideas of what a woman should be.”

With IPA having been founded by British police sergeant Arthur Troop and its headquarters now located in Nottingham, England, Region 13’s gesture would seem to have brought the international graciousness full circle.

“A great part of the IPA is that you get a good flavor of other countries and cultures and how they live,” said Vance. “They learn a little bit about America when they come here and we learn about their country when we go over there.”

He recalled a visit from a South African police officer who had been hosted by an IPA household in the U.S.

“This was before Mendela was released from prison and I showed this visitor around Montgomery County and he gave me a bottle of wine, as we talked about freedom in South Africa and the fact that someday it may come about,” Vance remembered. “I told him that I was going to save the bottle of wine until it happened. And sure enough, it did happen that South Africa became a free democratic country.”

Naomi, whose father has already extended an offer of reciprocating the American hospitality, said that if not for the IPA’s generosity her stay would have been necessarily much shorter.

“I probably would have been able to manage a week at a hotel,” she said. “I did have a grant but it probably would have just covered my airfare.”

Mary Cisco marveled at the arbitrary nature of the invitation that resulted in a solid friendship.

“We’re a wacky Italian family and I kept saying to her of all the places she could have landed in Pennsylvania she landed here with us,” she said, laughing.

Vance noted that the visit couldn’t have turned out better had it been plotted out on paper.

“It was all spontaneous and couldn’t have been better planned even if you tried to plan it,” he noted. “It was one of the best experiences Naomi could ever have in terms of coming in contact with the right people and meeting her needs. And it was a great experience for the two exchanges in terms of the IPA.”